Chapter 177 Untitled
2015-01-07
Author: Floating Tower (诸生浮屠)
“You’re going to get him killed like this!”
A panicked voice suddenly echoed in the little girl’s mind, but her expression remained nonchalant as she pouted and said, “How could that be! He looks pretty strong! Besides, halflings are known for their good luck. If we don’t let him help find that Demon Son of Fear, are we going to look for him ourselves? The sons have mental perception!”
“This idiot and fool are so useless!… I’m already struggling to deal with him!”
“Right now, we can only wait to find him and figure out a way to have him and the others mutually destroy each other. That’s the only chance we have to take him down.”
The voice in her head seemed a bit angry as it complained, “Let me out!”
“Aladdin could never handle that vampire; he can’t even block one of your spells. If discovered, he will be killed by the Demon Son of Fear.”
The little girl boredly played with her hair as she walked to the window, smiling mischievously, “I’m not letting you out. Who told you to waste all your energy? You can wait until my energy is used up too.”
“Just kill him.”
“Anyway, aside from my brother, if anyone else dies, it doesn’t matter much to me, right?”
“You useless idiot! You really think that if we don’t take the initiative, he will sit idly by? My brother already knows about us being the Demon Son of Fear; he will surely find a way to kill the other sons! If we don’t act first, the disparity in their strength will only grow, and when that time comes, the ones in danger will be my brother and us!”
“Do you really want to be a burden hiding behind your brother forever?”
“My brother is already trying very hard!… But he is just a mortal!… This matter must rely on us!… Otherwise, do you think I don’t want to be by my brother’s side?”
The little girl revealed a hint of a cold smile, gazing out the window at the street. She slowly said, “This is a fight to the death! If we don’t kill them, they will kill us.”
“My brother will surely find a way to help us, and that will put him in great danger.”
“If we die, my brother will definitely take revenge for us, and then my brother will be in even greater danger!… Put away your pathetic weakness and kindness!”
“Vivian! We cannot lose this battle!”
The voice in her head fell silent. The will that had been vying for control of her body also quieted down, but a vague thought came through, sounding somewhat sulky: “My brother is my brother, not your brother.”
“You can’t call him brother.”
The little girl revealed a playful smile. She raised her pale little hand to untie her ribbon and styled her hair into two pretty pigtails, winking and grinning, “What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is still mine!”
Lilian was completely victorious.
With skills that bested magic.
………………
The scent of the sea breeze approached.
Soren’s figure emerged from the distant mountains; there was a mountain range near the City of Wealth, very similar to Gloria’s prophecy results. The only thing that still puzzled him was what the key card ‘Serpent’ meant regarding finding Vivian. Up to now, he had no clues, and along the way, he had only encountered a few venomous snakes, but that clearly had nothing to do with the card’s meaning. Now he could only hope that there were clues inside the City of Wealth; otherwise, he’d have no choice but to check the Soros Archipelago.
Vivian wouldn’t run to the Overseas Islands, would she?
After completing the bloodline purification ritual, Soren’s strength had improved significantly, especially in terms of vitality. He felt an endless amount of energy within himself. Minor injuries seemed almost negligible. His life points had increased to — [Wanderer Class Life 6 + (21-10) * 0.5] * 7 + [Shadow Class Life 8 + (21-10) * 0.5] * 2 + [Wizard Class Life 4 + (21-10) * 0.5] * 6 + 21 Constitution + 15 [Epic Strength Specialty] = 200 life points.
Soren had gained about 50 life points in total.
That equated to more than three profession levels of vitality added. His current life points were equivalent to a biological level 14 vampire or a class level 12 pure warrior.
He might not even compare to a barbarian, since barbarians have many additional specialties, naturally understanding the Epic Strength specialty.
This was still just the third tier of the bloodline purification ritual. There was still a legendary-level bloodline purification ceremony ahead. If he could master [Epic Strength], each profession stage would allow an extra 30 life points increase, for a maximum of 10 upgrades, totaling an increase of up to 300 life points.
At that time, a legendary melee character’s vitality would be close to that of a giant dragon!
Soren still had a chance to acquire [Epic Strength]. One of the prerequisites for this legendary specialty was a superhuman constitution of 25 points, and Soren was not far from this attribute requirement. The points gained from level up were definitely not enough because he mainly increased his agility. Improvements in that area could be obtained from divine powers.
Weakened divinity could provide +1 to all attributes.
Soren was not entirely without the possibility of mastering [Epic Strength].
As he got closer to the City of Wealth, Soren quickened his pace. The distant view gradually opened up, revealing expansive beaches and the sea. There were many reefs near the Southern Coast, making it highly likely that boats would run aground. That was why most cities were built in relatively safe maritime areas, and the City of Wealth was near the harbor of the bay ahead—on a route to the Soros Archipelago. He could vaguely see some small boats, but the first thing visible was not a sail. Although many aspects looked similar to his previous life, this world was flat.
This was not a planet.
More like a flat world structure, with only undulating terrain.
Such parallel continental shelf dimensions were quite common, whether it be the Bottomless Abyss or the Hell of Bartok, all with a tiered continental structure. Another law’s power maintained the world’s operation while connecting other dimensional spaces. The upper and lower planes were akin to layers of a pyramid, with the two pyramid bases connected together being the largest material plane of the dimensional space.
Soren was not very clear about many things.
What the entire structure of the vast universe looked like; he had only seen a glimpse during his astral travels. The astral realm could connect to most dimensional spaces, and while traversing within it, one might see semi-dimensional spaces flying at high speeds. It felt like standing in the universe traveling, but what was seen were not planets. Instead, they were floating, stationary, and moving dimensional spaces, like planets encapsulated by eggshell-like energies of rules.
Above the astral realm was the kingdom of deities, surrounded by elemental planes, and below was the abyssal hell.
While traveling in the astral realm, one might encounter the “Dead Divine Kingdom”!
…………
Wanderers are poorly suited for dimensional travel.
Besides the shadow plane, Soren had rarely ventured into the spirit realm, where spellcasters had a natural advantage.
A day quickly passed.
Soren could already see the harbor ahead, filled with large ships. The center of southern ocean trade was the City of Wealth. The transoceanic continental trade here served as a transfer station. Soren even saw boats from the Soros Archipelago and female warriors living in tropical rainforests. These women bargained like merchants, occasionally flaunting their beauty, breasts, and muscles. When a muscular, wild-looking female showed off her muscles which were even more developed than yours, you would immediately feel like something was off.
The port was outside the City of Wealth.
This was a very prosperous large city, and from a distance, one could see the magnificent temple, the giant temple of the Goddess of Wealth. It was said to store mountains of Gind. So far, no one has ever entered; during times of turmoil, legendary teams attempted to break in, but regrettably were annihilated in the blink of an eye. It seemed that other deities did not harbor any thoughts of robbing money from here, so no one could ascertain the level of the guards, but it was undoubtedly one of the most dangerous places in this world.
The symbol of the City of Wealth was the goddess statue in front of the temple.
From afar, it glittered; it could instantly blind your greedy eyes, and the statue weighed about fifty tons, not just gilded but an entirely solid gold statue!
Indeed.
It is pure gold, a fifty-ton pure gold sculpture.
Every time Soren saw it, he felt like a cat was scratching at his heart, even though he had seen it many times. However, seeing it again still made his hands itch and his heart yearn. This golden statue was untouchable, covered by divine power, but there was a blessing ritual that allowed people to touch it, which unfortunately required a great cost.
This thing was simply irresistible to thieves. Many had fallen into its trap back in the day!
What is a tycoon?
This is a tycoon!
There was no other deity as lavish as the Goddess of Wealth; this woman simply had money overflowing to the point of causing a breakdown. How many people had worshipped at her feet, crying and begging to attach themselves to her because her wealth was outrageously immense? If Soren had to choose one deity to believe in, the Goddess of Wealth would definitely make it to the top three!
Among her high-level believers, one might master a special legendary spell.
It’s called – [Dragonkind Conclave]!
This is a legendary spell that basically requires very little mana, no need for too powerful abilities, and even low profession levels can use it directly.
The spell’s effect is to summon a dragon or groups of dragons!
Pure-blooded dragon species.
It could possibly summon ancient dragons descending across planes or primordial dragons hidden in the seams of time and space.
A rather outrageous legendary spell.
But it also costs a lot of money.
[Dragonkind Conclave] starts at 100,000 Gind. The more money you take out, the more powerful allies you can summon; it’s possible to even summon demigod dragons from the dragon realm. In any case, this legendary spell is only affordable for top-tier tycoons. Soren had only seen it once when someone summoned three adult red dragons using mountains of Gind, then directly annihilated a small city.
Soren dared not look at the Temple of Wealth for too long.
He feared being impulsive; impulsivity is undoubtedly the devil, so it’s better not to see it.
…………
————————————-
The sky was already getting late.
Soren decided to find a place to stay first. There were many people in peculiar attire nearby, and many faces looked strange, as these were the races living in the Overseas Islands that had smeared their faces with large amounts of paint. The City of Wealth attracted any race chasing wealth. Other intelligent creatures, such as dwarves, elves, orcs, and halflings, were everywhere. Every year, many adventurers rushed from various regions of the continent, looking for chances to get rich in the City of Wealth.
This was the tycoon’s territory.
Just walking down the street, you could see merchants wearing gold chains as thick as fingers, or at least eight of their ten fingers adorned with gold rings. Following behind them, the brawny guards also sported gold chains. The opulence of the City of Wealth was still overwhelming. Soren felt his hands itching, but he restrained himself and didn’t act recklessly. The guards in the City of Wealth were also formidable; they constituted the top city legion on the roads, equipped almost entirely with one or two pieces of extraordinary gear.
This was the core city of the Goddess of Wealth.
It was also a vital source of her faith and the birthplace of spreading that faith. She allowed the followers of the theft god to operate here but absolutely did not permit them to disrupt the normal sources of wealth.
Simply put.
Petty thefts for a living is fine. But anyone daring to expect to get rich through theft would be doomed.
Capture one, and throw them into the mines; the priests of the Goddess of Wealth certainly wouldn’t mind having more slaves for mining! Each year, at least hundreds were sent to the mines, never to come out again!
Suddenly, a disturbance arose in the street.
Soren frowned and glanced over, his expression revealing some confusion. From a distance, there was complete chaos; people were hastily running backward, with some corpulent merchants sweating bullets, their gold chains swaying. They had quite a few guards under them, so why were they being driven away like stray dogs?
The disturbance gradually escalated!
The number of people hiding in the crowd was increasing. A shop nearby that seemed to be fencing goods had a fierce-looking owner glance toward the distance, immediately shutting the door without a word and hurriedly shoving his assistants inside. Further away, some merchants panicked and fled blindly, darting into alleys, their plump figures disappearing in an instant. The scene was nearly unprecedented, with people running everywhere as if dodging a pestilence. However, there was no murderous intent.
Could it be that someone dared to run wild in the Goddess of Wealth’s city?!
Soren’s expression grew increasingly perplexed as he lightly leaped to the second floor, looking toward where the commotion originated.
At a glance, he nearly stumbled over his feet!
Without hesitation, Soren jumped down from the rooftop, his figure slipping into the shadows. He then entered stealth mode, quietly slipping into the adjacent alley.
It turned out to be the plague!
Only something capable of causing such a commotion in the City of Wealth while frightening others to flee and without alerting the city army could it possibly be, thus far there was only one!
That is––Paladin!!!
And a particularly strong Paladin, leading everyone else to turn and run without a second thought.
In the distance.
A squad of silver knights on swift horses could be seen, all clad in silver-white knight armor, with knightly longswords at their waists, and not wearing helms, but their entire bodies were tightly wrapped in armor, even their arms were encased in silver-scaled armors. These silver knights looked extremely imposing, exuding a sacred aura, their faces adorned with warm smiles that easily generated good feelings at a glance; they were all very charismatic figures.
Such silver knights, if they walked elsewhere, would undoubtedly be welcomed joyfully by commoners, causing countless noble maidens’ hearts to race.
But sadly, this was the City of Wealth.
In fact, their appearance caused chaos wherever they went, with a large group of people fleeing chaotically.
Why was that?
Just look at how Soren was also running away; one could understand what the appearance of this group signified.
“Who the hell let the Paladin out?!!”
At that moment, countless people in the City of Wealth were hopping mad, especially those who were inherently shady figures; they were simply at their wits’ end! Among merchants, very few had clean backgrounds. There’s a saying, “There are no merchants without deceit,” and the majority of merchants being able to maintain neutrality is already remarkable, while good-hearted merchants are scant in number. Especially those engaging in overseas trade, they might occasionally moonlight as pirates. Winning in battle means double profits, how could that not entice people?
It could be said that at least a third of the people in the entire City of Wealth leaned toward the evil faction.
However, the degree of that evil inclination was not very high!
As for the neutral merchants, they had a little blood on their hands. They could hardly be considered clean. They wouldn’t simply be checking their alignment tendencies for fun, so they couldn’t confirm if they leaned toward evil. Regardless of whether they leaned toward evil or not, they certainly had dirty hands; if a Paladin took a dislike to you and decided to take you down, that would truly be disastrous!
In fact, it was already getting late.
The time when prostitutes and courtesans would normally come out to solicit was gone, but the entire City of Wealth was dead silent; no fighting or brawling was to be seen. No one was selling or laughing, and underground gambling houses were all shut. All those from all walks of life, especially those with dirty hands and traces of blood, had all hidden away. Local gangs were shrinking out of sight. Originally a bustling street now had at least half of its shops closed, and most of the remaining shopkeepers were nowhere to be seen.
This was the power of a Paladin!
Because they were genuinely good! They would not tolerate evil! They were guardians of justice!
Unfortunately.
Half of this world is evil.
Everyone swings between goodness and evil; even the neutral faction has only slight differences in their leanings.
This is the City of Wealth.
Pursuing wealth means that many have likely used ignoble means, even having lives on their conscience. Very few people here considered themselves entirely innocent, so upon seeing the Paladins’ appearance, their first reaction was to frown, then become terrified, and finally to turn and flee.
Because it was the [Silver Knight Order] that appeared!
They were the most powerful Paladin organization in the world, and those silver knights who looked heroic and inspiring were certainly not just for show; at least half of them were high-level professionists. If they suddenly went wild and cast a large-scale alignment detection, a bloody glow could emerge amidst the glamor of the City of Wealth.
People from all walks of life were contacting the City Hall, hoping they would expel these Paladins.
However, nobody dared to do so.
Because also appearing was the current leader of the Paladins. The legendary – [Silver Hand]!
The leading Paladin appeared ageless but had a very resolute countenance. He furrowed his brow and stared at the ensuing commotion, letting out a soft sigh.
“Your Excellency, Silver Hand!”
Behind him, a young knight with a face full of indignation said solemnly, “Should we purify this filthy city? I see far too many evil people!”
Silver Hand frowned, turned to glance at him and sternly said, “Shut up. Do not speak such words!”
“Our mission is to eradicate that evil Demon Son of Fear!… He has killed over a thousand people!… A town and five villages have vanished because of him!…”
“This is our mission. After completing it, we will return.”
The atmosphere became oppressive and heavy.
Some young Paladins who had just begun their mission revealed expressions of indignation, seemingly not understanding why, upon seeing so many evil people, the very Paladin they worshipped continued to remain unmoved! They naturally would not doubt the Silver Hand’s piety because if the Silver Hand could not even be called a Paladin, then there would be no one else in the world that could be called a Paladin!
He was devout, powerful, brave, fearless, compassionate, humble, loyal, sympathetic to the weak, protective of women and children, firmly believing in justice; almost any knightly virtue could describe him.
Because he is the [Silver Hand]!
The strongest and most devout Paladin in the world!
At his waist was one of the few artifacts in the world, the [Star of Daylight], which could only be wielded by those embodiments of Lawful Good!
It was as if a sorrow was brewing.
The silver knights walked on the litter-strewn street, and there were hardly any people in sight. Their expressions gradually reflected sorrow and rage, some even struck their chests heavily, letting out silent roars!
They did not understand!
Did not understand why those who firmly believed in justice and protected goodness would cause people to flee like that.
Only the older Paladins maintained calm expressions, quietly following behind the Silver Hand, as if they were no strangers to this kind of situation.
Behind them were the younger Paladins.
These young people’s faces gradually turned mournful, and some even shed tears, perhaps in the future, some would leave the ranks of the Paladins, but those who remained would undoubtedly become even more devout and resolute.
The crowd ahead gradually thickened!
Some ragged individuals emerged from the filthy alleys, their faces marked with the scars of life, battered and bruised. When they saw the figures of these silver knights, a glimmer of light—hope—appeared in their eyes. Many fell to their knees, even crying as they kissed the ground the knights walked upon.
An old man with white hair and a limp stumbled over, trembling as he knelt before the Silver Hand, deeply bowing his head to express his devotion and humility, tears streaming down his face as he cried out, “Justice… has finally arrived!…”
“My son… my daughter… they were all killed… all murdered by others…”
The old man sobbed deeply, kneeling on the ground.
The Silver Hand slowly bent down, humbly lowering his head in front of the old man, then helped him up, saying in a deep voice, “Paladins do not die! Justice endures!”
These words seemed to carry endless power.
The young Paladins, who were originally feeling extremely low, instantly became invigorated, as they stood solemnly behind the Silver Hand, their eyes resolutely fixed on the crowd before them, many gripping their longswords tightly, their knuckles turning white from excessive force. Just a single phrase awakened their passion, turning their initial dejections into boundless motivation and determination!
Only the older Paladins displayed sorrow, seeming to express a hint of helplessness, a touch of loss, a moment of reflection, and finally all transforming into resolute gazes, watching the people before them.
They were the lowest of the poor, the exploited, oppressed, and harmed people; they were the weak, the most pitiful group.
They were not villains; they were victims.
………………
(PS: There was limited time, and I’m not sure if it was written well, but the Tower has already done his best.) (To be continued ~^~)
